Google is the largest provider of internet services in the world. They are practically synonymous to the internet. There is virtually no one who has accessed the internet and not has heard of Google at all.
Google provides us both web and mobile services that make our smartphones smarter. They provide web search, mapping, email, videos, calendars, and a whole slew of other products that cover nearly all the bases for your internet needs.
One of the services that they provide is Google Docs. Google Docs are not as well known as the other services for a long time. That is because despite their usefulness, no one could beat the full functionality and fluidity of the Microsoft Office suite. The only advantage that Google had over the Microsoft Office suite, is the availability of the documents created in the internet. Even then, Microsoft documents could simply be uploaded into a variety of file hosting solutions all over the web if they need to share or access the files somewhere else. This is further simplified by the proliferation of personal cloud storage services, such as Dropbox.
Seeing that the file hosting service had such great pull in the growing mobile services industry, they recently upgraded the Google Docs service and integrated it to Google Drive. It still creates, stores and shares documents, but it can also store and share other types of files now, much like the services of Dropbox. Still, they had no effective solution of competing with the Microsoft Office suite.
Their losing streak may just come to a halt soon, as they recently announced their acquisition of Quickoffice. Google Docs might just be scheduled for another revamp after merging with Quickoffice’s fluid and seamless service that rivals the services provided by the Microsoft Office suite.
Microsoft Office has been, for a long time, a purely offline PC service. They were very slow with moving towards the growing mobile space. This is where Quickoffice has dominance. They have been around since the Symbian days and have grown stronger in adaptation as Smartphones began to take center stage. Quickoffice provides both offline and online document creation by linking together with online services, such as Google Docs and Box. This makes them more attractive to Google because it already has everything that Google needs to level up their documents service, while maintaining compatibility with their cloud storage services.
Microsoft is not to be outdone; there are rumors circulating that they are planning to integrate the Microsoft Office suite to the internet. It is also rumored that they are currently making mobile versions of their application for both iOS and Android devices. Microsoft is probably feeling the threat of the growing mobile market, and keeping the Microsoft Office suite stuck on only their own Windows and Windows Mobile systems is hurting them more than it helps them. Either that, or they are simply blissfully ignorant about the possibilities of mobile convergence.
As with every battle, experience is a valuable advantage. We know that in the internet and mobile app space, the Google and Quickoffice teams have years of experience, and the partnership may just create a beautiful lovechild. Do you think Google Docs is finally in a position to win over the leader of document creation and management?
Image sources: cio.com, gizbot.com, microsofthelpnow.com, allthingsd.com, lawprosystems.co.uk
